“They betrayed everything we worked for,” says Jocelyn Cooper, 84, as yet another black politician indicted for corruption.
Mrs. Cooper remembers when she and her husband took out a third mortgage on their home to finance a lawsuit challenging the voting districts in Brooklyn. It was Cooper v. Power that led to Brooklyn’s first African American in the House of Representatives, Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm, also the first African-American female in Congress, would go on to run for president.
However, the legacy of black political gains is tarnished by revered black politicians admitting to abuse of power, bribery and extortion. Jessie Jackson Jr. (D-IL) pled guilty to a felony charge of using $750,000 in campaign funds for extravagant purchases. Jackson, son of civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson Sr., may serve 46 to 57 months in federal prison.
All communities have experienced corrupt politicians. However, the black community with its special vulnerabilities can least afford such scandals.
The Civil Rights Movement served as a springboard for black political careers. Moving from protest to politics, Sharpe James, an educator, was mayor of Newark, NJ, from 1986 to 2006. Then, James was brought down by fraud convictions and sentenced to 27 months in federal prison.
Charles Diggs (D-MI), a civil rights activist who worked to end apartheid in South Africa, was the first chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was censured by Congress. Diggs, convicted of mail fraud in 1980, served 14 months in federal prison. He died maintaining his innocence.
Black politicians have long claimed a double-standard convicts them for conduct others do freely. In 1967, when Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-NY) was stripped of his power and congressional seat for allegedly abusing campaign funds, he said, “I will always do just what every other congressman and committee chairman has done and is doing.”
Powell filed a lawsuit against House Speaker John McCormack to regain his seat. The case, Powell v. McCormack, went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Powell was victorious. However, the damage was done. A young Charlie Rangel defeated Powell for that Harlem seat.
Charles Rangel (D-NY), now 82, is suing John Boehner, Speaker of the House, to overturn a 2010 censure for tax improprieties. Rangel chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He lost that post when the House voted 333 to 79 to censure him. Rangel claims his constitutional rights were violated.
However, corruption charges against certain black politicians are a matter of greed, not discrimination. Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), a Harvard Law School graduate, stashed $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer. Jefferson was convicted of taking bribes from businesses wanting to invest in Africa.
Jack B. Johnson, Prince George’s county executive, was charged with taking over $1 million in bribes. He and his wife, a county councilperson, were both sentenced to federal prison. Leslie Johnson tried to hide $80,000 in her blouse when the FBI arrived.
When Kwame Kilpatrick was elected mayor of Detroit, at age 31, his youth was a sign of rejuvenation. Now, as Detroit’s unemployment rises to 18 percent and population falls by 25 percent, Kilpatrick, 42, is going to prison. In March, Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 counts, including racketeering conspiracy and extortion.
In Milwaukee, Michael McGee Jr., former Milwaukee alderman, was imprisoned for corruption. In Georgia, Fidelis Ogbu, 60, DeKalb County Department of Public Works engineering supervisor, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for extortion. Brooklyn’s Clarence Norman lost leadership of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, the biggest Democratic organization east of Chicago, when he was convicted of extortion. Norman was stripped of an Assembly seat he held for 23 years.
“We sacrificed so much for future generations to have more than we did,” says Jocelyn Cooper, a retired social worker who remembers voting drives, stuffing envelopes, going door to door. “They betrayed the trust.”
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is associate professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College and author of “Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present.”
